The
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Museum, the world's oldest museum dedicated to
photography[3][4] and one of the world's oldest film archives, opened
to the public in 1949 in Rochester, New York.
World-renowned for its collections in the fields of photography and
cinema, the museum is also a leader in film preservation and
photograph conservation, educating archivists and conservators from
around the world. Home to the 500-seat Dryden Theatre, the museum is
located on the estate of entrepreneur and philanthropist George
Eastman, the founder of
Eastman KodakEastman Kodak Company. The estate was
designated a
National Historic LandmarkNational Historic Landmark in 1966.

The Rochester estate of
George EastmanGeorge Eastman (1854–1932) was bequeathed
upon his death to the University of Rochester. University presidents
(first Benjamin Rush Rhees, then Alan Valentine) occupied Eastman's
mansion as a residence for ten years.[5] In 1948, the university
transferred the property to the museum and the Georgian Revival Style
mansion was adapted to serve the museum's operations.[3]
George EastmanGeorge Eastman House was chartered as a museum in 1947.[6] From the
outset, the museum's mission has been to collect, preserve, and
present the history of photography and film. The museum opened its
doors on November 9, 1949, displaying its core collections in the
former public rooms of Eastman's house. In October 2015, the museum
changed its name from
George EastmanGeorge Eastman House to the George Eastman
Museum.[7]
The museum's original collections included the Medicus collection of
Civil War photographs by Alexander Gardner,
Eastman KodakEastman Kodak Company's
historical collection, and the massive Gabriel Cromer collection of
nineteenth-century French photography. The Eastman
MuseumMuseum has received
donations of entire archives, corporate and individual collections,
and the estates of leading photographers, as well as thousands of
motion pictures and massive holdings of cinematic ephemera.
By 1984, the museum's holdings were considered by many to be among the
world's finest, but with the collections growing at a rapid pace, the
museum was increasingly burdened by its own success. Additional space
became critical to store and study the increasing number of collected
objects. The museum's expansion facility opened to the public in
January 1989.[8]
In 1999, the
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum launched the Mellon Advanced
Residency Program in
PhotographPhotograph Conservation, made possible with grant
support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The program trained top
photograph archivists and conservators from around the world.
In 1996, the museum opened the Louis B. Mayer Conservation Center in
nearby Chili, New York. One of only four film conservation centers in
the United States (as of March 2006), the facility houses the museum's
rare
35 mm35 mm prints made on cellulose nitrate. That same year, the
Eastman House launched the first school of film preservation in the
United States to teach restoration, preservation, and archiving of
motion pictures. The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of
FilmFilm Preservation
was founded with support from The Louis B. Mayer Foundation.
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum has organized numerous groundbreaking
exhibitions, including New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered
Landscape in 1975.
Governance[edit]
Directors[edit]
The current director of the
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum is Bruce Barnes who
was appointed in September 2012.[9]

Board of Trustees[edit]
The
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum is headed by a board of trustees. Kevin
Gavagan is the current chair of board.
Finances[edit]
The
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Museum's annual budget is approximately $10
million. As of December 2014, its endowment exceeded $35 million.
Collections[edit]
The museum's holdings comprise more than 400,000 photographs and
negatives dating from the invention of photography to the present day;
28,000 motion picture films; three million other cinematic objects,
including letters, scripts, musical scores, lobby cards, posters, film
stills, and celebrity portraits; more than 16,000 objects of
photographic and cinematographic technology; an internationally
renowned research collection of books, periodicals, and other
materials on photography and moving images; and George Eastman's home
furnishings and decorative arts, personal and business correspondence,
private library, photographs, negatives, films, and related personal
items.
PhotographyPhotography collection[edit]

"A&P, COFFEE, SANTA CLAUS", 1958, photograph by Nickolas Muray

The photography collection embraces numerous landmark processes,
objects of great rarity, and monuments of art history that trace the
evolution of the medium as a technology, as a means of scientific and
historical documentation, and as one of the most potent and accessible
means of personal expression of the modern era. More than 14,000
photographers are represented in the collection, including virtually
all the major figures in the history of the medium. The collection
includes original vintage works produced by nearly every process and
printing medium employed. Notable holdings include:

One of the world's largest collection of daguerreotypes, including
more than 1,000 by Southworth & Hawes
A major collection of nineteenth-century photographs of the American
West by photographers including Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge,
Timothy H. O'Sullivan, and William Henry Jackson
A major collection of ca. 1890s–1910s glass negatives from French
photojournalist Charles Chusseau-Flaviens
The photographic estates of Lewis Hine, Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon
Coburn,
Nickolas MurayNickolas Muray and Victor Keppler
A major collection of Ansel Adams’ early and vintage prints

The museum's collection includes works by leading contemporary
artists, including Andy Warhol, Candida Höfer, David Levinthal, Cindy
Sherman, Adam Fuss, Vik Muniz, Gillian Wearing, Ori Gersht, Mickalene
Thomas, Chris McCaw, and Matthew Brandt.
Moving image collection[edit]
The
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum Motion Picture Collection is one of the
major moving image archives in the United States. It was established
in 1949 by the first curator of film,
James Card (1915–2000) who
helped to build the
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum as a leading force in the
field with holdings of over 25,000 titles and a collection of stills,
posters and papers with over 3 million artifacts. The George Eastman
Museum's collection includes the complete moving-image works of
William Kentridge.
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Legacy Collection[edit]
This collection includes George Eastman’s house and the George
Eastman Archive and Study Center.[11] Opened in April 1999[12], the
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Archive and Study Center contains Eastman’s personal
possessions and documents pertaining to Kodak’s early history.[13]
It has over half a million items[11] within its climate controlled
vault[12]. The archive is accessible from the second floor of the
house.[12] Items within the house itself include fragments of
Eastman’s coffin[14], a mounted elephant head[15], and an Aeolian
pipe organ[16].
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Awards[edit]
The
George EastmanGeorge EastmanMuseumMuseum established the
George EastmanGeorge Eastman Award for
distinguished contribution to the art of film in 1955 as the first
award given by an American film archive and museum to honor artistic
work of enduring value.
George Eastman's Estate[edit]
George EastmanGeorge Eastman built his residence at 900 East Avenue between 1902 and
1905. He created a unique urban estate complete with 10.5 acres
(42,000 m2) of working farm land, formal gardens, greenhouses,
stables, barns, pastures, and a 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2),
50-room
Colonial RevivalColonial Revival mansion with a fireproof structure made of
reinforced concrete.
Eastman's house presented a neoclassical Georgian Revival facade of
decorative craftsmanship. Beneath this exterior were such modern
conveniences as an electrical generator, an internal telephone system
with 21 stations, a built-in vacuum cleaning system, a central clock
network, an elevator, and a great Aeolian pipe organ. Eastman used the
house as a center of the city's rich musical life from 1905 until his
death in 1932.
The estate was declared a
National Historic LandmarkNational Historic Landmark in 1966.[2][17]
References[edit]

College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering
Eastman School of Music
Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development
School of Medicine and Dentistry
School of Nursing
Simon Business School
The Institute of Optics